


Broken Promises

by CallidoraMalfoy1228



Category: Boy Meets World
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-31 00:58:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10888560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallidoraMalfoy1228/pseuds/CallidoraMalfoy1228
Summary: Shawn doesn’t attend Cory and Topanga’s wedding. Instead, he skips town and does what he does best when he can’t handle something; he runs. Left to get married without his best friend by his side, Cory comes to a realization that has him ending his relationship with Topanga. He sets out to find Shawn, knowing that the last piece of his happiness resides with the man who’s been his best friend since they were kids.





	Broken Promises

**Author's Note:**

> I started this one-shot a month ago, when I attended my cousin's wedding. It was just an idea that popped into my head while I was sitting there and I started writing it on my phone in the middle of the reception. (My cousin is STILL teasing me about that to this day.) It has a background pairing of Jack/Eric but that one isn't all that present. However, if you'd like the story behind how they got together in this fic I'll write it out for you guys! :) I hope you enjoy and remember to review.  
> Callidora

Shawn wasn’t there. This was the first thing that Cory noticed about his wedding. He should have noticed Topanga walking down the aisle in that beautiful dress or maybe even just her smile. He should have noticed the woman that was to be his wife on the day that was meant to bind them together. Instead, all he could see was the empty space beside him where his best friend should have been. It made his chest ache, a dull and hollow sort of ache that seemed to spread throughout his entire body. To be honest, he couldn’t even really see Topanga. He couldn’t see anything past the hole in his chest. 

No one knew where Shawn had gone. He’d disappeared the night before, leaving only a cryptic note behind. In his heart, though, Cory knew why he’d left. Shawn couldn’t bear to watch Cory marry someone else, even if the person was one of their best friends. He’d known for years that Shawn was in love with him. It wasn’t like Cory was completely blind. He could see it in the way Shawn smiled at him sometimes, in the spark of pain that flashed behind Shawn’s eyes when Cory so much as mentioned Topanga. What Cory hadn’t known – at least not until Shawn’s absence was a heavy weight in his chest – was that he was in love with Shawn.

The knowledge hit him like a ton of bricks, knocking all of the oxygen out of his lungs. Cory Matthews was in love with Shawn Hunter. The boy who had once thought that all he needed in life was to be Topanga Lawrence’s boyfriend now wanted to share his future with his best friend. It was the single most terrifying moment of Cory’s life. The decision to be with Topanga had been easy. She was everything he was supposed to want. Beautiful and smart and ambitious, Topanga had been ridiculously easy to convince himself to fall in love with. But his love for her had been artificial, he realized. His heart had always belonged to Shawn. He’d just been waiting to give it to him.

Cory looked up, glancing around the room filled with his and Topanga’s family and suddenly felt trapped. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t marry someone that he didn’t love just to save face. It was Shawn he wanted, Shawn that his heart was screaming for. Topanga was standing in front of him now, her eyes watching him almost knowingly. She knew, he realized. He took a step back, away from her, and met someone else’s eyes. Somehow, Eric recognized the decision in his eyes and gave a slow nod that told Cory without words that this was the right thing to do. And so Cory took one of Topanga’s hands in his own, his voice cutting the preacher off. 

“I can’t do this.” He said in a soft but firm voice. 

Gasps rang out among their family members and Cory studiously avoided the gazes of his parents. Instead, he looked down at Topanga, choosing to speak his next words directly to her instead of their family. Oh, he knew that they could hear. They would hear his every word and they would talk. Some of them would even be angry. But Cory’s heart was screaming for its other half, bleeding in a way that it never had before, and he found that he didn’t much care what other people thought.

“I love him, ‘Panga. I thought I could do this. I really thought I could marry you and just be his best friend but I can’t. I have to…”

Topanga smiled, squeezing his hands. “I’m not going to lie and say that this doesn’t hurt. Because it does. But you deserve to be happy and, if he makes you happy, then I want that for you.” 

She tilted her head towards his and kissed him gently on the lips, a final goodbye and a promise that she was behind him even in this. Cory smiled then, knowing that even her broken heart would not hate him for this. She spoke next to their family, the smile gentle but steely on her face.

“There is no wedding to be held.” She held up a hand when the whispers started. “This is not Cory’s fault. No one can help what is in our hearts. He has always been one of my best friends and I want nothing more than for him to be happy.” Her gaze hardened with her next words. “There will be no gossip. There will be no cruel words spat in Cory’s direction. He is my best friend and I stand behind him now just as I always have and always will.” 

She stepped aside then, looking at Cory. “Go find him, Cory. Bring him home, will you? He doesn’t belong out there. Shawn belongs here, with you.” Her voice was soft, her eyes shining with the tears she held back.

Cory nodded, glancing at his brother in the crowd of people. Eric nodded, already making his way out of the room. With one last glance at Topanga, Cory hurried out of the room after his brother. Eric waited for him by his car, foot tapping impatiently against the concrete. 

“I thought you’d never come to your senses.” Eric said as they backed out of the parking space.

“He wasn’t there.” Cory said. “He wasn’t there and I just…it hit me. It’s always been Shawn.”

“Of course it has. It’s been the two of you since day one.” Eric didn’t sound the least bit surprised. He’d been expecting this, Cory realized. His older brother had seen this coming and had been prepared. Not for the first time, Cory thanked his lucky stars that Eric was his brother. As much as his older sibling sometimes annoyed him, he’d always been there when Cory needed him. Like now, when Cory was leaving his bride at the altar in front of a crowd of their closest friends and family. Anyone else would have slapped him silly.

Cory nodded. “I just hope I’m not too late.” That was his greatest fear. 

“You’re not.” Eric glanced at him, fingers drumming against the steering wheel. “Shawn loves you and he’ll listen to you. It won’t be easy but I know he will.”

Cory sighed and stared out of the window, trying not to think about where Shawn could be. The truth was, he had no idea where his best friend could have gone. Shawn had been upset when he left, that much had been obvious by the tear drops staining the note he’d left. He was also trying to hide from Cory which meant he wouldn’t have gone to any of his usual hidey holes. He had no real idea where Shawn would even think to go. 

“Stop overthinking this, Cory. You’ll find him. You always do.” Eric said, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.

“I don’t know where the hell he’d go. He’s not going to be in any of the usual places because it’s me he’s trying to hide from.” Cory said.

Eric nodded. “True. But you know Shawn. Even if you can’t find him, he’ll come home eventually.”

Cory wasn’t so sure. This time could be different. What if Shawn had finally gotten sick of waiting around for him? He shook his head, clearing the thought from his mind. He couldn’t think that way, couldn’t let himself believe that Shawn wouldn’t want him. 

Eric turned the car into a parking lot where Shawn’s brother, Jack, waited for them. The elder Hunter brother climbed into the backseat and clapped Cory on the shoulder. 

“He’s at a motel, not too far away.” Jack said. “He called me and told me to let him know how the wedding went.” 

Eric grinned at him in the rearview mirror. “There’s not gonna be a wedding. We were right. Cory came to his senses just in time.” 

“I’d hoped that he would do just that.” Jack said.

“Which motel?” Eric asked, looking at his friend in the rearview mirror. 

Jack rattled off the name of the motel and Cory felt his heart give a very painful lurch. Admitting that he was in love with his best friend in front of a crowd of witnesses seemed easy compared with what he was about to do. He didn’t even know what he was going to say to Shawn. What did you say to your best friend when you’d discovered that you were in love with him? Cory felt himself start to hyperventilate as the car stopped in front of the motel where Shawn was sitting. 

“And now he goes to pieces.” Eric was saying beside him, his tone exasperated.

“Fuck off.” Cory got out between breaths. 

“I don’t see what the big deal is, Cory. You just walked out of your own wedding. Why are you locking up now?” Eric sounded confused.

“You’ve never had to admit to your best friend that you’re an idiot and that you’re in love with him.” Cory said angrily, closing his eyes. “I don’t even know what the fuck to say to him. He’s probably going to punch me in the face when he sees me.” 

And then Eric was laughing, his face lit up with amusement. “I’m sorry for laughing at you, Cor, but you have no idea.” He grinned at Jack in the mirror before continuing, “Last summer, I had the same conversation with Jack that you’re going to have with Shawn.” 

Cory stared at his brother, incredulous. “What in the hell are you talking about?” He asked.

It was Jack who explained. “Apparently, your brother fell in love with me sometime in the first six months we knew each other. Instead of telling me, he waited until I was already in love with him and tearing myself apart because I didn’t think he felt to same, to tell me.”

Eric rolled his eyes. “Point is that I know where you’re coming from. Just tell him what you’re feeling. Shawn isn’t going to hit you. Well, probably not.” 

“So…tell him that I feel like I’m going to throw up? Yeah, because that’s a smart idea.” 

Eric fixed him with an irritated glare. “You know what I’m talking about. Now get in there. We’ll stay out here until you give us the all clear to go.” 

“He’s in room six.” Jack called helpfully as Cory opened the door. 

Cory paused outside of the motel door for a long time. His heart was pounding in his chest and he really did feel like he was going to be sick. Violently so. But he raised a hand and pounded on the door. 

Shawn answered in a moment. When he saw Cory standing there he did not, as Cory had thought, punch him. Instead he glared in the direction of Eric’s car where his brother was sitting. He didn’t speak as he wordlessly stepped back and let Cory into the motel. 

“You’re supposed to be getting married.” Was all he said.

Cory kept his eyes on his shoes. Mostly because he couldn’t look at Shawn. “Eric said that I should just tell you how I feel. He slapped me when I asked if that meant that I should tell you that I feel like I’m going to throw up.” He paused. “Which, by the way, I do. I might actually throw up all over your feet in a second.” 

Shawn let out an irritated sigh. “Cory. What are you doing here?” He asked.

Cory forced himself to look Shawn in the eyes as he spoke. The words did not come out in the elegant speech that he had hoped. “I’m in love you. I’ve probably been in love with you since we were in middle school. I don’t know but I realized when Topanga was walking down the fucking isle that I was in love with you not her and so I called the wedding off and I came to find you and I’m going to fucking throw up now.”

And he did. All over the floor. Shawn, who was still staring at him as though he’d grown a second head, jumped away from the vomit as it cascaded out of Cory’s mouth. After he’d been sick, Cory found that he was incredibly embarrassed by the show he’d just put on. He had not intended to say things that way. He had meant to tell Shawn that he was in love with him and then to kiss him. Not spew about a bunch of what had probably been gibberish to Shawn and then throw up all over the motel room floor. 

 

The sound of Shawn’s laughter made him glance up. His best friend was sitting down on the bed, his head in his hands, howling with laughter. Cory felt his heart sink. Shawn thought he was joking. 

“That wasn’t a cue for you to laugh. I did not just walk out on my own wedding and leave Topanga to deal with angry guests to have you laugh because I’m in love with you.” Cory said.

Shawn looked up, his eyes still sparkling with laughter. “That’s not why I’m laughing.” He said.

“Then what in the hell is so funny?” 

“Whenever I pictured you telling me that you were in love with me it did not end with you throwing up all over the floor in front of me.” Shawn said, still chuckling. 

Cory groaned. “I was nervous. I had no idea what I was even going to say and you weren’t stopping me. You just let me continue to make a fool of myself.” He said.

Shawn’s face softened. “You didn’t make a fool of yourself, Cor. Not by a long shot.” 

“I didn’t?” Cory asked quizzically.

“No. It wasn’t exactly the declaration I’d been expecting but it…you meant it. I can tell by the way you said it. All in one breath like you couldn’t control what you were saying.” Shawn said, grinning.

“I did mean it. I wish I’d realized it two weeks ago so I could have called off the wedding and avoided Topanga and myself a ton of grief.” Cory shuddered. “But I mean it. I love you.” 

Shawn stepped around the vomit and stood in front of Cory. “I love you too. But you already knew that.”

Cory nodded. “I figured it out years ago. It took you disappearing on my wedding day to make me realize that the feeling was mutual. Probably means I’m some sort of terrible person who’s going to Hell.”

Shawn laughed. “No. It just means you’re the same dense Cory you’ve always been.” 

Cory thought that he should probably be offended by that. But there was no time to be offended because Shawn’s lips were on his own and the rest of the world blurred away. They pulled apart after a moment, Shawn grimacing. 

“You need to brush your teeth. You taste like vomit.” He said.

Cory shrugged. “You’re the one who kissed me.”

“And I’ll do it again. After you eat something to wash that taste out of your mouth and you get rid of our brothers.” 

“Eventually, we have to go back and face my family.” Cory pointed out.

“We do. Tomorrow. Tonight, we are going to stay here.” 

“That’s good enough for me.” 

Shawn walked to the door and opened it, waving a hand at their brothers. Eric honked twice as he pulled out and left, heading back to their house to tell their parents that Cory had not lost his mind. Shawn grabbed his wallet and Cory’s hand, tugging him out the door. Cory couldn’t help the grin that covered his face as they walked hand-in-hand towards a restaurant. This was where he belonged.


End file.
